Duck hunting is as much about luck as it is skill. Luck is what determines favorable weather patterns, makes you look in the right direction just in time to see the next flight approach, and makes you get up and hunt that one day a trophy pintail is flying.

But that doesn’t mean that luck alone will put ducks on the ground. When ducks have been hunted and survived, their luck has allowed their skill to increase, so you need to change the game to get the advantage.

The longer the season goes, the more ducks learn. They have been shot at and survived, and each time a shell was fired, a lesson was learned. Now it is time to take the lessons they have learned and make the ducks who think they are safe fall victim to their own sense of security.

This means that you need to change your approach so they do not know what is coming.

Move to new locations.

One of the reasons late-season ducks are so hard to drop is that they rarely come into range. How many times have you seen a flight approach a perfect decoy set only to flare at the last minute, never entering shotgun range?

There may not be anything wrong with your set, other than it is where the birds expect it to be. If they have been fooled by near-shore sets before and survived it, it is likely they are flaring because of where the decoys are, not the decoys themselves.

Moving to new locations, maybe even sights that would not be your first choice early in the season, can improve your odds greatly. You can further increase your odds by scouting to see where the ducks have retreated to and setting up nearby. Likely points would include larger water, sandbars, remaining reed beds, etc.

Make your spread as lifelike as possible.

Early-season success often hinges on going big or going home. Spreads are counted in the dozens. Calls sound like a tailgate party before the Super Bowl. Hunters are throwing everything they have at the ducks. Sounds like what you should be doing as the end approaches, but you would be wrong.

Remember, these ducks have seen and heard everything before. Some of these ducks have been hunted for weeks. Now is the time to go small and be stealthy.

Cut your decoys back to the bare minimum. This may mean a few dozen divers on long lines, or it may mean half a dozen mallards spread along a sand bar; you will need to observe local conditions to see what nature is doing. Now, make sure the decoys you do use are the best of the best.

Birds are wary and will pick up even subtle differences, so make sure your decoys are as lifelike as possible. It’s time to touch up any scratches and remove any that have been hit by stray pellets.

Finally, you need to leave the calls in your pocket. Far too many hunters have been blaring their calls, and many were much less proficient than they thought. The end result is that birds are wary of any sound that is less than perfect.